Fear of RockBox

[yngwi]

I also have an brandnew h140 (9 days old) but have already flashed it with rockbox!
I don't know why i did it exactly, but i guess i could not resist the temptation, and the non-existing shuffle did already start getting on my nerves...
So far I have'nt encountered any real problems (knocking on wood, if you know what that means) and i like rockbox very much (specially the shuffle and the custom font and WPS thing -> its much more easyer to use if u can see what files are coming next )
I only hope, it was'nt a mistake (i do have a slight stomachache about this), but i definitely had to try...

Wish me luck,
Daniel

[rd]

How did you get fwpatcher.exe to work, boobers?

[zezayer]

Has ANYONE bricked their player because of rockbox??

Has anyone has their RMA refused because of rockbox??

Flamegrilled stop scaring people off!!

[FlameGrilled]

If you wanna shut me up, zezayer, from advising with a huge sympathetic element of caution - then come shut me up in person, otherwise.. give me a break.

You will not change what is inherently part of the whole FG extistence by such comments to me as you made, so don't waste your breath - such effort is best employed to other activities

[zezayer]

Prove me wrong?

:P

[TCK]

Originally Posted by zezayer

Has ANYONE bricked their player because of rockbox??

Has anyone has their RMA refused because of rockbox??

Flamegrilled stop scaring people off!!

While the answer to both of the above is no, there have been a few near misses in the past. Also, just a little titbit which I learned a couple of nights ago: not even Linus is using the Rockbox firmware as his primary choice yet.

I've flashed it, tried it out, it works okay, but in it's current state the only thing the majority of users can gain from flashing is gapless playback, and this is at the cost of battery life, and a currently buggy firmware. I don't think you're stupid for trying it out at all, but currently I and a few others don't feel it's the best option available to us.

[Mike]

Ah, but TCK, by this weekend, I'm sure that all the bugs will be gone ...

[TCK]

Not true, since I don't foresee a time where there will be no bugs with Rockbox. The iRiver firmware, for all its stability, is still not bug free. The question is not "will the bugs be gone?", it's "will enough of the dangerous bugs be gone?".

[FlameGrilled]

zezayer :-

Prove you wrong..??

Why the hell should i prove you wrong, i aint got to prove ferk all to the insignificant you or anyone else here.

Hell, i won't even submit to proving myself on any level to anyone at any time at their request or whim - until such times as i choose to do for my own purposes (i.e. it being my intent and choice to do so under my free-will personal judgement, and that's booked for the day hell freezes over).

[rubber-glove]

whoah. this thread is getting pretty intense.

i'll steer clear of the morality and philosophical issues and just throw in my Rockbox thoughts.

i flashed more or less as soon as the bootloader was stable and rockbox, you know, ran. why?

no great reasons, but i've enjoyed the gameboy games (space invaders!) and have used the text reader plugin often to read books (not as akward as it might seem). the playlist feature is nice too (i.e. you can make a playlist, 'iriverify' it then use it in the original firmware). the UI is much cleaner, and the whole thing scores points with my ipod-toting geek friends. plus, i tend to err on the side of recklessness when it comes to modifying my toys. also doom2 is pretty entertaining (okay. that last one is still on the 'todo' list)

music playback in rockbox is, imho, not practical at the moment. i've tried a few times and have not been able to get through more than four or five songs without a hitch (usually requiring a paperclip)

as for bricking the player, well, correct me if i am wrong, but the current bootloader actually (in some respects) INCREASES safety. It includes a usb mode directly in the bootloader which allows you to use the h1xx as a harddrive without loading a firmware (which is loaded off the hard drive). this is safer because if a hard drive or crucial files go corrupt, you can connect the player to your computer and scan/repair the damage.


rubber-glove

[Bionic-Badger]

Problems with the iRiver firmware and some odd combination of having an outdated database and using a playlist nearly bricked my H140 because of faults with the iRiver firmware. The problems even prevented me from accessing the hard drive via USB using the original firmware (I was not aware at the time that the bootloader would work in USB mode). Resets would not fix anything.


The Rockbox firmware/bootloader actually saved my ass from having to RMA the damn thing (only had about 2 weeks before the warranty was up). I tried connecting to it with the rockbox firmware (didn't hold record and hit play), and it worked beautifully, and was much faster than the native USB connection mode. I deleted the old database and the problem was fixed.

If anything, install the bootloader so you can have much faster USB access for your player and the guarantee that if the iRiver firmware busts, you have an alternate route to fix your player. Even if development on Rockbox stopped right now, it has already "paid" for itself in my eyes.

[boobers]

I didnt get the fwpatcher to work. Zezayer very kindly emailed me the patched firmware.

[rd]

Neither did I. Had to use my girlfriend's xp laptop.